Voice activated dialing (VAD) is a popular time-saving feature available in connection with many communication devices, and typically offered as a service to subscribers. This feature enables a caller to simply speak an instruction such as “Call Michael” into his or her communications unit, and a call is placed to Michael's telephone number. Before the VAD feature may actually be used, however, the subscriber usually must set up a personal VAD directory so that the VAD system is able to carry out the instructions from the caller. The personal VAD directory may include entries with each entry including an identity of a called party or entity and a corresponding telephone number. When the caller speaks the call instruction, the VAD system matches the name or phrase spoken by the caller to an identity in the caller's personal VAD directory, and the call is routed to the telephone number corresponding to the identity.
A problem with the VAD feature is that the extent of its use by a subscriber generally depends on the content of the subscriber's personal VAD directory. If a subscriber gives the VAD instruction of “Call Bob”, and there is no match in his or her personal VAD directory, then no VAD call can be made to Bob. Thus, a subscriber with only a few entries in his or her personal VAD directory is limited to making VAD calls to only those few people. Even a user with a lot of entries in his or her personal VAD directory may feel limited because his or her directory may fail to include entries relating to particularly useful or frequently called numbers.
The logical course of action for a subscriber with few entries in a personal VAD directory or a subscriber whose directory fails to include useful, frequently called, or other numbers is to add the appropriate entries. But a hindrance to this logical course of action is the burden imposed on the subscriber in adding such entries to his or her VAD directory.
Typically, to add an entry to a personal VAD directory, a subscriber must first call his or her VAD service provider. The subscriber may have to negotiate his or her way through a maze of telescoping automated call menus to reach the appropriate place for adding an entry to his or her VAD directory. For example, the subscriber may call a service number provided by the VAD service provider and work his or her way through menus that may say something like this:                “You have reached service provider X. If you are calling about your wireless service, press or say ‘1’; if you are calling about billing, press or say ‘2’ . . . ; if you are calling about VAD service, press or say ‘999’.”After pressing “9”, the subscriber might hear:        
“If you are calling about billing, press or say ‘1’; etc.” until the subscriber hears:                “If you would like to change an entry in your personal VAD directory, press or say ‘1’; if you would like to delete an entry in your personal VAD directory, press or say ‘2’, or if you would like to add an entry to your personal VAD directory, press or say ‘3’”.        
Once the subscriber successfully reaches the appropriate place to add an entry to his or her personal VAD directory, the subscriber may have to carry-out additional actions. For example, the subscriber may have to provide a personal identification number (PIN) or password to gain access to the VAD system to add an entry to his or her personal directory. The subscriber generally has to provide at least two pieces of information: (1) the telephone number for the entry; and (2) a VAD command for associating with the telephone number and for use in implementing the VAD service. To provide the information, the subscriber must know or have the information available. In particular, the subscriber must know or have on hand the telephone number for the entry he or she desires to add to the directory. Also, the subscriber must have a VAD command in mind or on hand for associating with the telephone number. If the subscriber fails to have either piece of information, the VAD service generally is unable to update the subscriber's directory.
Once the subscriber has provided the telephone number and VAD command for the entry to be added, the subscriber may have to take yet further action. In most VAD systems, the subscriber may be requested to confirm the provided information, or take action to make changes. Misunderstanding of the prompts or menus of the VAD system, or errors in providing the information may delay and may complicate the process of adding an entry to a personal VAD directory. If the subscriber experiences difficulties in adding an entry, a service representative may eventually be made available to help the subscriber with the addition of the entry.
Alternatively, the subscriber may be required to update the VAD directory that exists on the subscriber's VAD device. This updating also requires several steps, ant this updating typically requires using a limited set of available keys on the VAD device. In all cases, an additional limitation of the prior art is that these procedures do not allow for any automated offering of VAD directory updating as the result of the occurrence of an event such as an incoming or outgoing call.
The above description of the typical process of adding an entry to a personal VAD directory demonstrates the process can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and confusing. For at least these reasons, many subscribers shy away from using the process of adding an entry to a personal VAD directory. Yet, a VAD service generally is more useful to a subscriber when the subscriber's personal VAD directory is populated with entries relating to persons and entities who are often called by the subscriber, who are important for the subscriber to reach conveniently like the VAD service, and others.
Accordingly, there is a need for a way for a subscriber of a VAD service to easily, quickly, and efficiently update his or her personal VAD directory. There is a particular need for a way for a subscriber to update his or her personal VAD directory without having to negotiate his or her way through a lot of call menus. There is also a particular need for a way for a subscriber to update his or her personal VAD directory with entries relating to people or entities with whom the subscriber often communicates, with whom it is important the subscriber have easy communication access, and with others. There is a further particular need for a way for a subscriber to update his or her personal VAD directory by adding an entry without necessarily having to know or having available to the subscriber the telephone number to be included in the entry.